Howard County is located in the U.S. state of Maryland. As of the 2020 census, the population is 334,529. Since there are no incorporated municipalities, there is no incorporated county seat either. Therefore, its county seat is the unincorporated community of Ellicott City. Howard County is part of the Baltimore metropolitan area.
The county is home to Columbia, a planned community between Baltimore and Washington, D.C. with a population of approximately 100,000, founded in 1967.
Howard County is frequently cited for its affluence, quality of life, and excellent schools. Its estimated 2020 median household income of $124,042 (~$ in ) makes it one of the wealthiest counties in the US. Many of the most affluent communities in the area, such as Clarksville, Dayton, Glenelg, Glenwood, and West Friendship, are located along the Route 32 corridor in Howard County. The main population center of Columbia/Ellicott City is regularly ranked in Money magazine's Top 10 "Best Places to Live". According to data from the U.S. Census Bureau, Howard County ranks fourth in the nation for educational attainment, with an estimated 63.6% of residents 25 and over holding a bachelor's degree or higher. In 2022, the Howard County Public School System was ranked the best school district in Maryland.
In 2010, the center of population of Maryland was located in the Howard County town of Jessup.
Etymology
The name of the county honors Colonel John Eager Howard, an officer in the "Maryland Line" of the Continental Army in the American Revolutionary War, commander notably at the Battle of Cowpens in South Carolina in 1781, among others. He was the fifth governor of Maryland, serving from 1788 to 1791.
History
Prior to the European colonization of what is now Howard County in the 1600s, the area served as farming and hunting grounds for Indigenous peoples including the Piscataway and Susquehannock peoples. The Maryland Historical Trust has documented Indigenous sites along the Patapsco, Patuxent, Middle and Little Patuxent River valleys. In 1652, the Susquehannock tribes signed a peace treaty with Maryland, giving up their provenance over the territory that is now Howard County. In 1800, the mean center of U.S. population as calculated by the US Census Bureau was found in what is now Howard County.
In 1838, Dr. William Watkins of Richland Manor proposed the "Howard District" of Anne Arundel County. After several adjournments, the area of western Anne Arundel County was designated the Howard District in 1839. The district had the same status as a county except that it was not separately represented in the Maryland General Assembly. In 1841, the county built its first courthouse in Ellicott City. At the January 1851 constitutional convention, Thomas Beale Dorsey submitted a petition led by James Sykes (Sykesville became a prominent community in subsequent years, and was named after him). A committee was formed with Dorsey, Bowie, Smith, Harbine and Ricaud. After several postponements, the district was erected officially as Howard County on July 4, 1851, after the approval of the new constitution at the election held June 4, 1851.
The plantations of modern Howard County used slave labor as early as 1690. At the time of the Underground Railroad, some Howard County residents assisted slaves who were escaping to freedom. This was particularly risky, as many prominent plantation families were Confederate sympathizers during the Civil War, contributing militiamen to the South to protect local interests. Maryland was exempt from the Emancipation Proclamation, later abolishing slavery in the update of the Maryland Constitution in November 1864.
On May 1, 1883, Howard County joined Anne Arundel County and Harford County in liquor prohibition.
By 1899, Howard County contained of dirt and of stone roads, including three paid turnpikes maintained by 118 men. Most traffic consisted of loads delivered to rail crossings. In 1909, County Commissioners Hess, Werner and O'Neil were charged with malfeasance regarding contract bids.
In 1918, a deadly flu pandemic swept the county starting with an early outbreak in Camp Meade in adjacent Anne Arundel County. The 1930s saw a shift from one-room schoolhouses to centralized schools with bus service. By 1939 wheat harvesting fell to just . In 1940, local newspaper owner Paul Griffith Stromberg led a five-county commission to study a superhighway between Baltimore and Washington through Howard County. The Federal Aid Highway Act of 1956 eventually led to the construction of Interstate 70 across northern Howard County and Interstate 95 across the eastern part of the county. The sparsely populated county hosted population centers in Ellicott City, Elkridge, Savage, North Laurel and Lisbon with W.R. Grace and Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Lab as the largest new employers. Residents elected officials that campaigned to keep the county rural while planners prepared public works to support a quarter million residents by the year 2000. Race relations and desegregation became major issues of the time.
From 1963 to 1966 the Rouse Company bought of land and rezoned it for the Columbia Development. In 1972, the Marriott company proposed to build a regional theme park on Rouse-owned land but was denied zoning.
The county has a number of properties on the National Register of Historic Places.
Geography According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the county has a total area of , of which is land and (1.0%) is water. It is the second-smallest county in Maryland by land area and smallest by total area.
Howard County is located in the Piedmont Plateau region of Maryland, with rolling hills making up most of the landscape. It is bounded on the north and northeast by the Patapsco River, on the southwest by the Patuxent River, and on the southeast by a land border with Anne Arundel County. Both the Patapsco and Patuxent run largely through publicly accessible parkland along the county borders. The Patuxent border includes the Triadelphia and Rocky Gorge reservoirs.
Adjacent counties Anne Arundel County (southeast) Baltimore County (northeast) Carroll County (north) Montgomery County (southwest) Prince George's County (south) Frederick County (west)
Climate Howard County lies in the humid subtropical climate zone. As one travels west in the county away from the Baltimore area, the winter temperatures get lower and winter snow is more common. Annual rainfall is about throughout the county. Over a 60-year period from 1950 to 2010, there were 394 National Climatic Data Center reportable events causing 617 injuries, and 99 fatalities. There were 9 reported tornadoes, reaching a maximum of F2, with no recorded fatalities.
Demographics For much of the 1800s and 1900s, Howard County was a predominantly white and mainly rural county with a small population. In 1950, the population was only 23,000. Since the 1950s, the county's population has increased tenfold and has diversified into a majority minority county. Almost half of Howard County's population identified as non-Hispanic and/or non-white by 2017. Much of the racial diversification of Howard County came after 1967, when The Rouse Company designed Columbia to be a planned community that included people from diverse socioeconomic and racial backgrounds. African-Americans have lived in Howard County for centuries, with the African-American population increasing greatly after the 1960s. Immigration from Asia, particularly Korea, India, and China, as well as Latin America, has also contributed to Howard County's diversity. While historically primarily Christian, Howard County now has sizable Jewish, Muslim, and Hindu populations. As of 2019, 18,700 Jewish people lived in the county, making up 5.8% of the total population. More than 6,000 non-Jewish people in the county have Jewish people in their households. As of 2010, only 1% of Jews in the county were Orthodox, while one-third each were Conservative and Reform and one-quarter were secular or non-denominational. In the same year, one-quarter of the Jewish community were poor or financially insecure, 17% made less than $50,000 per year, and half made annual incomes of $100,000 or more.
Racial and ethnic composition +Howard County, Maryland – Racial and ethnic compositionRace / Ethnicity (NH = Non-Hispanic)Pop 1980Pop 1990Pop 2000Pop 2010 Pop 2020% 1980% 1990% 2000% 2010% 2020White alone (NH)100,311153,417180,010169,972155,23684.60%81.90%72.63%59.21%46.71%Black or African American alone (NH)13,74121,65235,35349,15064,01811.59%11.56%14.26%17.12%19.26%Native American or Alaska Native alone (NH)1873665155114610.16%0.20%0.21%0.18%0.14%Asian alone (NH)2,2858,02618,97741,10166,0731.93%4.28%7.66%14.32%19.88%Native Hawaiian or Pacific Islander alone (NH)x included in the Asian category in the 1980 Censusx included in the Asian category in the 1990 Census80105114xx0.03%0.04%0.03%Other race alone (NH)5641686567462,2130.48%0.09%0.26%0.26%0.67%Mixed race or Multiracial (NH)x not an option in the 1980 Censusx not an option in the 1990 Census4,7618,77116,840xx1.92%3.06%5.07%Hispanic or Latino (any race)1,4843,6997,49016,72927,3621.25%1.97%3.02%5.83%8.23%Total118,572187,328247,842287,085332,317 100.00%100.00%100.00%100.00%100.00%
2020 census As of the 2020 census, the county had a population of 332,317, which translated to a population density of . The median age was 39.0 years; 24.4% of residents were under the age of 18, 14.3% were 65 years of age or older, and there were 94.4 males for every 100 females (91.3 males per 100 females age 18 and over). 88.1% of residents lived in urban areas while 11.9% lived in rural areas.
The racial makeup of the county was 47.9% White, 19.6% Black or African American, 0.4% American Indian and Alaska Native, 19.9% Asian, 0.0% Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander, 3.9% from some other race, and 8.2% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino residents of any race comprised 8.2% of the population.
There were 118,781 households in the county, of which 37.9% had children under the age of 18 living with them and 23.8% had a female householder with no spouse or partner present. About 21.1% of all households were made up of individuals and 7.8% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older.
There were 123,202 housing units, of which 3.6% were vacant. Among occupied housing units, 71.1% were owner-occupied and 28.9% were renter-occupied. The homeowner vacancy rate was 0.7% and the rental vacancy rate was 5.9%.
2010 census As of the 2010 United States census, there were 287,085 people, 104,749 households, and 76,333 families residing in the county. The population density was . There were 109,282 housing units at an average density of . The racial makeup of the county was 62.2% white, 17.5% Black or African American, 14.4% Asian, 0.3% American Indian, 2.0% from other races, and 3.6% from two or more races. Those of Hispanic or Latino origin made up 5.8% of the population. In terms of ancestry, 17.7% were German, 13.9% were Irish, 10.6% were English, 7.0% were Italian, and 4.6% were American.
Of the 104,749 households, 39.3% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 58.9% were married couples living together, 10.5% had a female householder with no husband present, 27.1% were non-families, and 21.9% of all households were made up of individuals. The average household size was 2.72, and the average family size was 3.20. The median age was 38.4 years.
The median income for a household in the county was $103,273, and the median income for a family was $119,810. Males had a median income of $82,307 versus $59,128 for females. The per capita income for the county was $45,294. About 2.8% of families and 4.2% of the population were below the poverty line, including 4.6% of those under age 18 and 5.5% of those age 65 or over.
2000 census